Rutan left Ripping Corpse in 1993 to join Morbid Angel, recording Domination (1995) before leaving in 1996 to found his own band, Hate Eternal.

On January 18, 2019, it was announced that Rutan would fill in for Pat O'Brien of Cannibal Corpse for the remainder of their winter and spring tour dates.

[1][2] Rutan was later made the permanent lead guitarist of the band on February 2, 2021 and appears on their fifteenth studio album Violence Unimagined.

For example, he formed the group Alas with former Therion vocalist Martina Astner, releasing the landmark progressive metal album Absolute Purity in 2001.

Rutan was also a guest vocalist on the track "Bone Crown" on Annotations of an Autopsy's second full-length album, II: The Reign of Darkness.